I just got solar, my local installer quoted to put up Qcell Q.peak G11+ panels, which I accepted. By the time they came to install them, they no longer had those panels but instead I got the new Q.tron G2 435w panels....the specs are noticeably better with 22% efficiency, 0.3% temperature coefficient and they have lower degradation rate of 0.33%/year with a 90.5% performance warranty at 25 years, so I'm happy.
Thank you SO MUCH for putting this material together for all of us out here who have difficulties deciding on a particular manufacturer! This is exactly what I need at this stage in my life. We’re about to build our retirement home in sunny Thailand… Keep up the good work!
Words of wisdom for those contemplating a residential solar system. The installers are a major achille's heel to the solar industry. Most installers won't touch/modify/do maintenance on s system they didn't install. There is a very high turn over rate with these installers with respect to going into and out of business. So, if you need to update/repair components on an existing system good luck doing so if the original installer went belly up. Companies like Enphase won't warranty equipment that was installed by non-Enphase installers. Even if it's just a simple plug and play replacement component (e.g., a microinverter).
I almost chose the alpha pure rec panels but I chose the Sunpower m440 in the end as you can get 40 year warranty on them not 25 years, if you register them. I can’t wait for my panels to be installed 😃
Complete solution is just a red herring as far as I'm concerned. It's just a distraction if you're looking for brass tacks on the best panels. Proprietary installations leave you with the fewest options.
Depends on your goal. If you want a turnkey solution and as little worry as possible, premium (proprietary) is probably your best bet. If you want more flexibility, or want to upgrade frequently / be more involved, then there are a lot of great solutions to choose from. It's almost like the iPhone vs Android debate. Different solutions for different people.
@@TopHomeowner To some degree, but the reliability is pretty high across all the premium manufacturers. With SunPower's new 40-year warranty, you might not even outlive that silliness.
Can you specify if these panels are poly or monocrystaline panels? Apparently it makes a big difference for wattage output. Also micro inverters on each panel make a huge difference, without them, if only 1 of your panels is blocked by cloud/dust or any other sun deterant, it can affect the output of the entire solar array.
@@TopHomeowner All residential solar companies should only sell monocrystaline , best way to tell a poly is the panel is blue cell and in the 14-16 efficiency ratings. Mono's are 18-21- Optimization or micro-inverters - I prefer DC-DC optimization
You are wrong about string inverters and if 1 panel is shaded micro inverters are better. Lots of research and vids by professionals and diy'ers have proven that micro inverter "selling point" to be false. Years ago it was true when solar panels only had one diode and MPPT on string inverters was still evolving. That being said, their are situations that MI do have advantages but partial shading, clouds..... are not one of those.
I thought this was very well done. I am building a system for off-grid usage. I live in Hawaii, so the heat will become a factor that I hadn't adequately taken into account. Thank you
Wondering why you didn't include Jinko N-type (Tiger series)? For what I've been reading, Jinko should be a top 5. Good performance and value for money for residential use.
OK I’m a little biased I’m a solar installer I install panels for a living I would put silfab fab way above qcell, tesla wouldn’t even be in my top five and number one panel would be a Rec 405 I also feel like you cherry picked the biggest panels that companies had to offer not there best as an installer I can say that the smaller the panel the better
@@L6901Malice what you don’t see as a homeowner or somebody looking to install a solar system or using a company is the amount of times I go to a job and our software says X amount of panels might fit on your roof and they don’t the convenience of just a higher efficiency panel when it comes to me, hauling it up a ladder and setting it on a roof the smaller, the panel, the better but in addition to that typically if a panel is 4 to 5 inches smaller whether that be in width or height that can mean the difference of me fitting another row of landscapes or portraits
Tesla doesn't manufacture solar panels, they purchase them from a third party, same thing with Panasonic- Solarcity is the worst service company ever. It's Sad, even though the tesla battery is a great design and functionality, I've installed hundreds and hundreds of Tesla batteries. With Panasonic PV wafer, cell and module production will halt by the end of fiscal year 2022.
Great comparison! For the “End Performance %”, are you using silfab’s @ 30 years vs the others @ 25? If so, that would seem to put Silfab at a decided disadvantage.
And they're not interested in being competitive by offering panels to the end user/homeowner. By having it all inclusive, that's probably the only way they'd offer the new 40-year warranty.
Sunpower is by far the best. Ask why Fortune 500 companies use them and the US FORCE. There panels are actually patented in the US. Yes they produce the most efficient panels out there. They get up to almost 23%
Thank you so much for this informative video. I am interested in solar shingles as well. I know Tesla and GAF make solar shingles (roof), but I don’t know if there are other companies and I don’t see many videos comparing them. I would appreciate if you could cover that topic too.
Surprised to not see something like REC Alpha Pure mentioned ..... those have comparable metrics to Pana and SunP. I am not a solar sales guy but a homeowner looking to put something on my roof that will last the next 30 years, and that Alpha panel looked really good. I am not an expert on panels however.
Yeah I noticed that too. When I made the video they were available (announced) but now I can't find them anywhere. They may have had some quality control issues.
@vinnie97 Yes, REC is actually the manufacturer for Panasonic panels. Also, the reason I recommend Panasonic over REC is the superior warranty coverage
I've heard good things about all three. I get a lot of comments about how Jinko has panels that produce more energy (they are huge compared to typical residential panels though). In general I tend to lean towards companies that are well known and have been in business longer than the warranty they offer.
I appreciate you explaining the key factors to consider before making a purchase and breaking down the warranty differences and explaining tye importance of efficiency and the linear power battery grid .
I am looking at solar and was quoted a bid for REC panels that was on your thumbnail. What made you decide not to include them in your top 5? Seems like by the numbers they should be in your top 3. Thanks!
REC makes really good panels, and the specs compared to Panasonic are just about identical. In fact, Panasonic started outsourcing their panel manufacturing in the last year or two, and REC is the company they've partnered with. Since they are essentially the same panel, I wanted to only put one of those two in the top 5. Since Panasonic offers a 25 year labor warranty vs REC at 10, Panasonic got the spot. Next time I'll probably make a top 10 list since there are so many good panels on the market today though!
I recently just found that Panasonic and REC are basically the same panel. Good stuff to know. If that is the only difference then I’m fine. REC extends the labor warranty to 25 years if done by an REC certified professional installer as part of their REC pro trust warranty. If I was doing a DIY that would be a problem but I’m having a company do it who is certified so looks like I’m good. Thanks for the info!
@@TopHomeowner REC also offers 25 years labor warranty if it's installed by certified installers. The 10 year offer is only for installations over 25 kW, residential istallations are probably 99% under 25kW, so they get 25 years.
Supposedly solar panels only last so long. My question is... are the panels still aging if they are outside but not connected to a system? (So its not active, but outside, either on a maintenance phase or a winter shut down)? (Or aging faster or slow depending on if the system is going or not going with the results being much different from each other?) Also the last 2 years the panels are getting MUCH smaller, and saying they are doing more. I'm worried if the numbers can really be trusted. Do you think they lie about their stats? Thank you.
Solar panel capability degradation is well understood based on lab and real world usage, and after the initial period of a year or so it is a linear decline so it's easy to predict out. That said, keep in mind two things. 1) Since the published numbers are guaranteed it is in each company's best interest to be conservative so homeowners don't file claims and hit their reputation. From that you would expect actual results to typically come in higher. 2) The guarantee is capacity, not actual output which can be less due to a number of factors like shading, angle of installment, and weather. From that some homeowners can expect actual output to come in lower. In other words, go with a reputable manufacturer and it's unlikely the numbers are going to be materially different than reality.
Additionally, SunPower won't sell them by the panel. They want you to install a whole system. The slim advantage they have is in efficiency only, but they've been surpassed in temperature coefficient, so hopefully they'll figure out they need to sell direct to stay competitive. Otherwise, I don't think they're going to have much longevity remaining.
In Palm Springs area I went with a company called Renova Energy. They just got bought by SunPower. So we got the SunPower panels, but not the one advertised in this video, M Series, I think we got the X series, or maybe S which produces 400 watts. I have a 3 bed/3 bath 1934' house with Pool & Jacuzzi. He looked at our entire energy usage for the previous 2 years and also added another 25% for when we go over etc... We ended up with 24 panels which cost $46,000+ cash, or 25 year lease for $294 per month. We paid cash, because leasing after 25= years amounts to $99,000+, and being so sunny here we should get our money back after about 8 years. We also have Net Meetering under Nem 2.0 which sells our overage back to the utility at $.30 per kw or something like that. I called Tesla and they quoted over $101,000 for 35 Panels but also 2 Powerwalls. My brother on the other hand on Las Vegas got his much cheaper so it's different for each state. I could go on and on, but it's worked out great so far. You got to be in an area that gets a lot of sun though. Any clouds or monsoonal type weather, smoke, whatever cuts that the solar power in half or lower.
I would like to see the PTC rating of the silfab panels. I would stay away from any US manufacture as it cost more to manufacture a panel then what they are selling for. A 30 year warranty doesn't mean much if they are out of business in 10 years.
A Chinese Company called LONGi, along with many other, are selling 540w panels for some time now that we have been using in Pakistan. They have efficiencies around 23%. I don't know why you guys still have such low efficiency panels with such less wattage...
With LONGi their residential panels produce 415w max and 21.3% efficiency. With solar panels you also have to take into account their size. The panels you're talking about are for commercial roofs and much larger. They even say so on their website
There are, but typically they're for commercial installations and not residential ones since they tend to be larger in size. I'll look again and see if there are newer panels at 500w that are targeted for homeowners now.
Solar city was founded and financed by Elon and his brother. When you said Tesla bought Solar city like if it was foreigner company. it is not. it was already own by Elon Musk and his brother
@coco9004 Well I'm citing sources so if they are wrong, I suggest you contact them. Here's a couple of articles: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SolarCity www.shortform.com/blog/solarcity-founders/ www.ecowatch.com/solar/reviews/solarcity
TOTAL SPAM VIDEO. THERE IS -NO- ONLINE DESIGNER OFFERED. JUST A COME-ON TO GET YOUR INFO AND "CONTACT" YOU (In other words SALES call.) Although I thank you for your "opinion" on what are the "BEST" panels and why. You TOTALLY lie about the online calculator/designer.
Here's a link to their calculator: us.sunpower.com/home-solar/residential-solar-power-calculator Here's a link to their designer: us.sunpower.com/design-studio Also, here's a link to the calculator at EnergySage. www.energysage.com/solar/calculator/ There are a lot of good options but this video is about the Best Solar Panels and is based on specifications.
